The Kraken

RIP. Sure there will plenty of idiots "celebrating" this news, though.

Are there any fans who are anti-expansion? Can't say I've come across any who are against the idea at the right point in time.

And as I say, it's an opinions game. Maybe some of us use Lallana's performance as a benchmark, and perhaps think that Gadton's didn't quite come up to that. I don't know, I can only speak for myself. I thought Gaston did some good things and some needlessly bad things. I also thought Lallana did a better job in that position when he came on. None of that equates to saying that Gaston was sh*t. Just that he may not have had his best of games.

Or maybe different people have differing opinions? It's a novel idea, granted....

"ITV footbaii is hereby clearly labelled as a PARODY. For real football news, please visit @itvfootball" Yep, seems legit.

Its his first hit at "they're were dead and buried before I went there". Which his media chums will only be too happy to fall for. Despite the £20M plus he spent.

Sunderland sold out? With an attendance of 31,275? I feel not. Newcastle did not sell out. They returned some tickets that they didn't sell, we didn't shift them all. The games that sold out well in advance were Man Utd, Spurs, Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea. QPR sold out but not long before the tie. West Ham we'll include too. And in amongst that the games that didn't sell out often had crowds under 30,000, and as low as 28,000.

West Ham I'll give you; list the others, would you please?

You miss the point every single time with this one. A "sell out" has little relevance on its own. Its when the game sells out that really matters. If we sell out on the day, then it suggests that the stadium size is around about right. And creating a sense of demand is a good thing, if only a few people are missing out. We really need to be looking at how many games sell out many days, even weeks in advance. That's a good barometer that we could sell thousands of extra seats. Not just hundreds, that selling out on the day or a day or two previous would indicate. This season we've only done that against the big sides. We've even had the opportunity against some sides to sell more home seats than would ordinarily be available (through the away side returning theirs) and not been able to sell out.

Our attitude to the cups next season will be interesting. Treating the League Cup with disdain as we did this year was perhaps understandable in a season of consolidation. Next season, I'm not so sure, I'd like to see us give it a bit of a go. We're not going to win the league any time soon, that's for sure. And we all saw how a decent cup run can swell interest levels in the club; the 2003 Cardiff appearance and season led to a season of our highest ever season ticket sales, and an average attendance nearly 1,000 higher than anything else we'd ever seen before or since. Swansea have shown this season that you can marry league cup success with a top ten finish, and they're running on a lesser budget than we are.

Exactly. So I think we should only look at form for the past 3 games.

:lol:

Do that and you'd be hard pushed to argue against the merits of an expansion of some sort. Just as it should be; a couple of years at least to gauge the merits of a bigger crowd from actual crowds/sell outs.

Fair enough. Harsh in my opinion, but your choice. For me I'll always remember his tenure here as a huge, huge success with no downside at all; he did everything that was asked of him and more, and left the club on an upturn in 15th place in the PL. The man has earned all my respect and then some, even if he was perhaps not the man to take us on further at this level.

It was disappointing. It wasn't poor. We were never out of the top two all season; if anyone had been offered that at the start of the season you'd have bitten their arm off for it, it was so unexpected. You're judging a league campaign over a handful of games, rather than looking at the successful big picture. To actually get into a position to challenge for the title in the first was a cracking achievement, and to see it through to promotion will always stay with me as a brilliant season from all concerned, including the manager. Fair enough if you see it otherwise and see it as a failure, I myself can only see the positives.

There were many parallels with Twitchy's after-match SKY interview with us after the Everton game. 'Arry bemoaning that they didn't take it to the corner and got punished for it, have to soldier on, blah blah blah. He looked a beaten man, and all he had left in his locker was to single out and praise only the players he has brought in. The man is classless to the very last.

I think you're misunderstanding it. At the start of the season, we were not serious promotion contenders. Even on the poll on here the majority of people had us down for playoffs at best. It's re-writing history to suggest that getting usurped by Reading at the death means that it was an unsuccessful season. By any yardstick from the start of the season it was a rampaging success.

I doubt even with the benefit of hindsight you'll find many who will agree with that assertion.

Cheers. And to clarify; what is the difference between outline permission and standard planning permission? Does one lead in to the other, or are they separate?

I shouldn't laugh but....... :lol: F*ck off Harry!

Taraabt could be a decent player with a more solid team around him; he'll stay Premier League next season if he doesn't go abroad. Loic Remy is good too. Hats off to Wigan for making a competitive side year on year with such a relatively little amount of cash.

Our brilliant wins over the last few weeks seem to have been soured ever so slightly by some results below us. Unless Wigan lose out to 10 men, we'll still "only" be 6 points off the relegation spots. Having beaten Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks, plus having had 3 wins on the spin, you'd kind of hope for a little bit more than that!

I was being flippant.